Why we need each other
By Annette Schavan
Dieser Artikel in Deutsch
Annette Schavan (Foto: BMBF).
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One side needs scope for action and the other advice. Productive collaboration between science and politics strengthens Germany's international competitiveness.
There has always been a mutual relationship between science and politics, all the more so in our increasingly complex world. Science presupposes freedom and autonomy in order to develop a truly productive process of knowledge acquisition. However, it cannot accomplish this entirely independently of society and the political order which initially create and ensure such freedom and privileges. On the other hand, politics has to rely on academic advice: in all debates, which are often enough laden with conflicts, science still happens to be the most reliable source for analysing and assessing issues. In highly complex matters such as biotechnology, climate change or peacekeeping, scientific advice is crucial to politics. Such advice must be independent and based on a responsible quest for general statements. Owing to its being democratically legitimised, politics has the task and the responsibility to arrive at binding decisions. Again and again, however, politicians have to make decisions before ultimate certainty on open assessments and interpretations has been scientifically established.
We need scientists engaged in research on the cutting edge of progress in knowledge acquisition, and we need top-level high-tech research at the interface with industry. One of the fundamental experiences people working in science make is how to deal responsibly with knowledge. That humans can do more than they are allowed to do is part of the history of freedom in modern societies. This is where politics plays a crucial role by moderating and helping to shape social dialogue on implementing what is possible.
For me, good higher education and research policy also implies an interest on the part of the politicians in academic work and results. This is why I intend to go on frequent visits to institutes and higher education institutions, to seek direct contact with science and junior scientists and scholars and endeavour to ensure that science gets the scope it needs. I do not perceive my office as one in which more and more rules are written and decreed; but rather, as one that attributes more importance to responsibility at institution level. More scope for action is a convincing course towards responsible autonomy. I am pleased to note that higher education and research not only enjoy a high status in my department but in the new Federal Government as a whole.
From a country of ideas to a country of implementation
Germany is a country of ideas. This is where the first car was built. This is where the chip card and the airbag were invented. There are many success stories of this kind. But we also know of stories that ended less fortunately: the fax machine, the MP3 player and flatscreen technologies. They were invented in Germany, but they were not developed into marketable commodities here. This must not be allowed to happen again. We must get quicker at building bridges from research to the markets of the future. Apart from science and industry, demands are made on politics here, too. This is why the Federal Government is launching a high-tech strategy for Germany. Our country has to be transformed from a country of ideas into a country that implements ideas as well. With the high-tech strategy, we want to get science and politics to cooperate, encourage researchers to realise their ideas and start up businesses, combine research funding and the legal framework for future markets in important technologies and enable small and medium-sized businesses to take more advantage of this potential. They are the backbone and innovative potential of our economy. This is why we are going to utilise new instruments for knowledge and technology transfer and for promoting regional clusters.
Nowadays, it is not only the speed of everyday life and politics that has changed. In science, too, increasingly internationalising competition is resulting in ever higher rates of knowledge production, which go hand in hand with the so-called half-life of knowledge. Thus, our times are putting increasingly high demands on all actors, both regarding access to new information and, above all, its analysis and transformation into concrete action. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation sees itself as a bridgebuilder, and this is exactly what we need. Bridge-builders who make scientific insights transparent and comprehensible for people in our society. Bridge-builders who initiate and support debates in society, and of course, bridge-builders into the whole world, a role that the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation performs in an exemplary manner. We want to intensify dialogue between science and industry, politics and society. This is also forward-looking and productive scientific policy consultancy that befits a democratic society.
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